European Cooperation// Placemaking Project: Kick-off meeting

The Consortium Members at EJBW in Weimar

People – Place – Connection 

On 19-21th of May, Placemaking for Inclusion had implemented its kick- off meeting in Weimar, Germany attended by partners from other 5 countries (Belgium, Norway, Spain, Greece, Italy).

In this first coming together, partners worked on defining placemaking for inclusion and what it can contribute to the non-formal education and place pedagogy.  PM4I is to empower youth work providers and youth organisations to ensure social inclusion of young people of diverse backgrounds in jointly shaping the local communities, by using the placemaking methodology and practices. Placemaking has become influential for practitioners in numerous fields-place-based initiatives often seek to improve the well-being of local communities through creative, collaborative responses to local issues. Such engagement with place can support the aims of youth work and non-formal education especially when working with young people with fewer opportunities.

On the first day, partners were going in depth to understand the project’s spirits through developing the action plan for research methodology led by ESTEL, and approach and concept for PM4I COOKBOOK /educational toolkit (led by Urban Foxes) inspired by “The Flavour Thesaurus”.  

The PM4I COOKBOOK will co-create the new and innovative tools, approaches and methods with youth organisations and young people with fewer opportunities making them relevant stakeholders in development of inclusive urban spaces in all partner countries. In this COOKBOOK, we will define the methodological approach for adaptations of placemaking pedagogy to the contexts of youth work and non-formal education. Sguardi Urbani leads the discussion of Peer Exchanges and Pilot Testing “Placemaking for Inclusion” Cookbook. This task will includetraining and mobility of Youth workers, trainers, educators and teachers and academic professionals for 5 days in Italy. The first day was concluded with Weimar city expedition. 

The second day was started by the Placemaker Ambassador campaign strategy led by CGE. This task will plan and implement all dissemination, user-engagement and communication activities on a structured basis, setting up the main tools to reach out to the relevant audiences and fostering networking and mutual learning among target stakeholder groups interested in PM4I approach. Partners were also brainstorming for the project’s brand identity throughout the afternoon. It was paramount to capture the energy of that moment through the logo ideas delivered by partners. 

Next step by partners would be in working on local research, to investigate the current situation of ‘’state of the art’’ of placemaking in each partner country to identify the main gaps and opportunities for advancing with the placemaking methodology adaptations to youth work and NFE. For this purpose, partners will conduct focus groups, surveys and consultations. 

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